Isaac for President

Isaac thinks he'd be a great candidate for the GOP, as his great-grandpa Krehbiel told him, but that isn't what this is about! Plus, I am sure Ryan would like to continue to talk to him about the benefits of being more aligned with the middle (or the left. GASP), but I digress.

While Ryan posted a week or two ago about our visit to see Dr. S, and the fact that when we flat out asked "is Isaac going to walk," and were answered with, "not without significant support," Isaac has been laughing in the face of medical science. I have so many different emotions when it comes to this.

First, Isaac is Isaac. We love Isaac for who he is, not for what he can or cannot do. Whether or not he walks at all, with or without assistance makes absolutely NO impact on how we see our son. He's Isaac. This is something that I think some people have a struggle seeing. We may triumph when he stands and when he goes up the stairs (like you'll see in the video below), but when a child has a diagnosis I feel like we can go one of two ways. We could get entirely caught up in what it is that our child "has". For me, if I were to go down that road, it would be all consuming. Always thinking about the diagnosis, or in our instance pressing on to further find a 'diagnosis' that fits Isaac's description. What we've come to find is that there is no label that describes Isaac better than "Isaac" and that is the road we have chosen to go down. No amount of dwelling on his diagnosis is going to fix anything. To be quite honest, putting on his brace for his club foot has become so second nature, we don't even think about it. It's just as much part of the bedtime routine as him pooping in the tub during bathtime, and us covering Eli in Vasoline until he is like a slick pig (for his eczema). Eli also has taken to it, and last night he tried to put on his Stride Rites to go to bed. He doesn't understand why he doesn't 'get' to wear shoes to bed! We are also very cautious about Isaac's spine, and try to support him when he gets in awkward positions, and freak out when Eli tries to sit on him, but we let him do anything and everything he can tolerate.

I think that this is how I have figured out how to deal with everything as positively as I can. One of my closest friends and I discussed this when her child was coming out on the other side of a devastating diagnosis, as the sunlight began to shine on them. We talked then (and this was long before I had the boys), about how she longed to be on the other side, with a 'healthy' child. Doing 'normal' 'healthly' kid activities. Dwelling on diagnosis would not get her there any faster than what she was doing to work through all of the issues presented. Her and her husband's perseverance and trust in God is what got them to the other side. Well, and trained medical professionals.

I guess all of this is to say, we can only choose to look forward, as dwelling on these things only holds us and our sweet guys back.

So while we are elated, excited and encouraged by Isaac's recent strides to stand on his own, we still see him as Isaac. And we always will.